Air Travel Consumer Report

Section Page

Introduction ......................…2

Flight Delays

Explanation ......................…3

Table 1 ......................…4

Overall Percentage of Reported Flight

Operations Arriving On Time, by Carrier

Table 1A ......................…5

Overall Percentage of Reported Flight

Operations Arriving On Time and Carrier Rank,

by Month, Quarter, and Data Base to Date

Table 2 ......................…6

Number of Reported Flight Arrivals and Percentage

Arriving On Time, by Carrier and Airport

Table 3 ....................…10

Percentage of All Carriers' Reported Flight Operations

Arriving On Time, by Airport and Time of Day

Table 4 ....................…12

Percentage of All Carriers' Reported Flight Operations

Departing On Time, by Airport and Time of Day

Table 5 ....................…14

List of Regularly Scheduled Flights

Arriving Late 80% of the Time or More (Check for all pages)

Table 6 ........................15

Number and Percentage of Regularly

Scheduled Flights Arriving Late 70% of the

Time or More

Table 7 ........................16

On-Time Arrival and Departure

Percentage, by Airport

Table 8 ........................20

Overall Number and Percentage of Flight

Cancellations, by Carrier

Table 9 ........................21

Flight Causation Data, By Airline and Category

Table 10 ........................22

Flight Causation Data, Graphic Representation

Section Page

Flight Delays (continued)

Table 11 ........................23

List of Regularly Scheduled Flights with Tarmac

Delays of 4 Hours or More, By Carrier

Table 12 .........................24

Number and Percentage of Regularly Scheduled Flights

With Tarmac Delays of 3 Hours or More, By Carrier

Footnotes ..........................25

Appendix ..........................26
Mishandled Baggage

Explanation ....................…..27

Ranking--Month ....................…..28
Oversales

Explanation ....................…..29

Ranking—2nd Quarter 2009 ......…....30

Ranking—January-June 2009 ......…....31
Consumer Complaints

Explanation ....................…..32

Complaint Tables 1-5 …….......……...33

Summary, Complaint Categories, U.S. Airlines,

Incident Date, and Companies Other Than

U.S. Airlines

Rankings, Table 6 (Month) ………..............38

Complaint Categories ………..............39
Customer Service Reports to the

Department of Homeland Security 40
Airline Reports to DOT of Incidents Involving

the Loss, Injury, or Death of Animals

During Air Transportation 41

INTRODUCTION

The Air Travel Consumer Report is a monthly product of the Department of Transportation's Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings (OAEP). The report is designed to assist consumers with information on the quality of services provided by the airlines.

The report is divided into six sections (Flight Delays, Mishandled Baggage, Oversales, Consumer Complaints, Customer Service Reports to the Transportation Security Administration, and Airline Reports of the Loss, Injury, or Death of Animals During Air Transportation). The sections that deal with flight delays, mishandled baggage and oversales are based on data collected by the Department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The section that deals with consumer complaints is based on data compiled by the OAEP’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division (ACPD). The section that deals with customer service reports to the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is based on data provided by TSA. The section that deals with animal incidents during air transport is based on reports required to be submitted by airlines to the ACPD. Each section of the report is preceded by a brief explanation of how to read and understand the information provided.
The report normally is released by the end of the first week of each month. The report is available via the Internet at http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/
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FLIGHT DELAYS

This section provides information about airline on-time performance, flight delays, and cancellations. It is based on data filed by airlines each month with the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (Office of Airline Information), as described in 14 CFR Part 234 of DOT's regulations. It covers nonstop scheduled-service flights between points within the United States (including territories) by the eighteen (18) U.S. air carriers that have at least one percent of total domestic scheduled-service passenger revenues, and the one (1)* carrier that currently reports flight delay data voluntarily.
The rule requires carriers to currently report on operations to and from the 31 U.S. airports that account for at least one percent of the nation's total domestic scheduled-service passenger enplanements (see Appendix for a complete list of the reportable airports). However, all reporting airlines have voluntarily provided data for their entire domestic systems, and that information is included in this report.
A flight is counted as "on time" if it operated less than 15 minutes after the scheduled time shown in the carriers' Computerized Reservations Systems (CRS). All tables in this report except Table 4 are based on gate arrival times; Table 4 is based on gate departure times.
In fulfilling DOT’s data reporting requirements, the reporting air carriers use automated and/or manual systems for collecting flight data. Those using an automated system rely on the Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) or the Docking Guidance System (DGS). Based on the latest information available to DOT, of the 19 reporting air carriers, 13 carriers (AirTran, American Eagle, Atlantic Southeast, Delta, ExpressJet, Frontier, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Northwest, Pinnacle, Southwest, United, and US Airways) use ACARS exclusively; 2 carriers (American and Continental) use a combination of ACARS and DGS; 1 carrier (Comair) records arrival times manually; and 3 carriers (Alaska, Mesa, and SkyWest) use a combination of ACARS and manual reporting systems.
As indicated above, a carrier may voluntarily file data for its entire domestic system. Tables 2, 3, and 4 are limited to the 31 required or "reportable" airports; Tables 5, 6 and 7 contain data on flights to/from all airports that were reported. Tables 1 and 8 each have one column for the 31 "reportable" airports and another for all of the airports reported; see footnote C for additional explanation.
Tables 1 through 4 display percentages of flight operations that were on time, while Tables 5 and 6 show service that was late. Tables 1, 1A, and 2 present data by carrier; airlines are ranked by performance in Table 1 and are listed in alphabetical order by carrier code in Table 2 (see Appendix for codes). Beginning with the February 1988 report, Table 1A shows carrier rankings by month and time-series data on the percentage of flight operations that arrived on time.

Tables 3 and 4 provide information by airport and time of day. Table 5 is a list of the most frequently delayed flights, showing the percentage of each flight operation that was late that month and the average and median number of minutes the flight was late. The flights with the highest percentage of late operations are listed first in Table 5; where percentages are identical, flights are listed alphabetically by carrier code. Table 6, like Tables 1, 1A, and 2, presents data by carrier, but lists the carriers in rank order from worst to best based on the number of flights which were late 70% of the time or more. Table 7 lists more than 200 cities in alphabetical order with the corresponding on-time arrival and departure percentages.

Tables 3, 4, and 5 contain information on the time of day that a flight operated. All times are local. A 10:50 a.m. departure from Atlanta is 10:50 a.m. Atlanta time; if that flight arrived in Dallas at 11:45 a.m., that is 11:45 a.m. Dallas time. If a flight's scheduled operating time changed during the month, Table 5 shows the time that was in effect for the last flight operation performed that month.
Table 8 displays the number of operations, number of flight cancellations, and percentage of cancellations by air carrier for the reportable airports and for the air carriers’ domestic system.
Table 9 displays airline flight delay causation data by categories, and Table 10 provides an overall graphic representation of that data.
Table 11 lists the regularly scheduled flights with tarmac delays of 4 hours or more, and Table 12 displays the number and percentage of regularly scheduled flights with tarmac delays of 3 hours or more.
Except for the flights listed in Tables 5 and 11, this report provides summary information - it does not show the on-time record of individual flights.  The on-time performance for individual markets and flights can be searched at http://www.bts.gov/programs/airline_information/airline_ontime_statistics/

Airline Service Quality Performance data from the most recent six months is available for free download as a CD product from the BTS Bookstore at https://www.bts.gov/pdc/index.xml     CDs for earlier months can be purchased by sending an email to: Orders@bts.gov Additional summary data for airports and airlines can be found at BTS’ Flight Delays at-a-Glance at: http://www.transtats.bts.gov/HomeDrillChart.asp

Cause of delay data for airports and airlines can be found at: http://www.transtats.bts.gov/OT_Delay/OT_DelayCause1.asp   
Information on the performance of specific flights is displayed on the CRS used by most airlines and travel agencies. Each of the reporting carriers' flights have a one-digit code between 0 and 9 representing that flight's percentage of on-time operations for the latest reported month. For example, "8" means that flight arrived on time (within 15 minutes) between 80% and 89.9% of the time during the latest reported month.
*Pinnacle Airlines currently reports flight delay data voluntarily, as permitted by Part 234.

JULY 2009
AIR TRAVEL CONSUMER REPORT
TABLE 1. OVERALL PERCENTAGE OF REPORTED FLIGHT OPERATIONS ARRIVING ON TIME BY CARRIER *

	AT 31 REPORTABLE AIRPORTS B/				AT ALL REPORTABLE AIRPORTS C/
CARRIER A/	NUMBER OF AIRPORTS REPORTED		PERCENT OF ARRIVALS ON TIME D/		NUMBER OF AIRPORTS REPORTED		PERCENT OF ARRIVALS ON TIME D/
HAWAIIAN AIRLINES S/		7		82.4		15		93.6
ALASKA AIRLINES S/		16		87.9		50		87.2
SKYWEST AIRLINES S/		20		84.2		138		83.6
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES S/		20		80.8		66		80.7
US AIRWAYS S/		29		80.3		73		80.6
UNITED AIRLINES S/		28		79.9		71		79.6
EXPRESSJET AIRLINES S/		22		78.5		97		79.6
MESA AIRLINE S/		17		80.8		100		78.6
PINNACLE AIRLINES S/V		14		78.9		113		78.6
CONTINENTAL AIRLINES S/		27		78.0		63		78.5
AMERICAN EAGLE S/		18		78.9		114		77.7
NORTHWEST AIRLINES S/		30		76.5		78		76.4
DELTA AIR LINES S/		31		75.5		90		75.5
FRONTIER AIRLINES S/		22		74.7		40		74.2
JETBLUE AIRWAYS S/		19		71.9		45		73.1
AMERICAN AIRLINES S/		29		73.0		76		72.2
AIRTRAN AIRWAYS S/		25		69.2		62		69.8
ATLANTIC SOUTHEAST AIRLINES S/		8		68.0		110		68.3
COMAIR S/		20		63.0		70		63.6
TOTAL			77.3				77.6

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